In Race for Rangel’s Seat, Top Rivals Promise Job Growth in Struggling Areas

With less than three weeks to go until the Democratic primary for Representative Charles B. Rangel’s seat in Congress, he and his top rival, State Senator Adriano Espaillat, courted voters on Wednesday by promising to bring sorely needed jobs to the struggling Harlem and Bronx neighborhoods that make up much of their district.

But as Mr. Rangel hosted a job fair and Mr. Espaillat called for enhanced tax incentives to help small businesses pay decent wages, the overriding theme of their contest — whether Mr. Rangel’s longevity should be seen as an asset or a weakness — never quite faded into the background.

Inside a gym at Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx, Mr. Rangel, 83, commended job seekers for showing up to look for work. “You’re very, very special people because you did not wait for the job to come to you,” he said.

Then he added a message of encouragement, one that could have doubled as a motto in his fight for a 23rd term: “The most important lesson is that you can’t give up, you can’t give out, and you can’t give in,” Mr. Rangel said.

In East Harlem, meanwhile, Mr. Espaillat, 59, took to a street corner outside the sprawling East River Plaza — a thriving shopping complex, with Costco and Target stores — to attack it as a monument to an outdated economic development strategy.

The project had received a $15 million loan and $40 million in bonds through the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone program created under legislation Mr. Rangel sponsored 20 years ago.

“The big-box store subsidy model perpetuates a cycle of poverty,” Mr. Espaillat said, adding that many workers earn only the minimum wage and never climb above the poverty level.

“That’s not the way to lift the community from a serious recession,” he added. “This is a model that I think belongs to the past, and we want to talk about a model for the future.”

At stake in the race between Mr. Rangel and Mr. Espaillat — a rematch of a 2012 contest that Mr. Espaillat narrowly lost — is the future of the 13th Congressional District, whose demographics have shifted to predominantly Hispanic from predominantly black.

Mr. Rangel, a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, who lost his leadership post on the House Ways and Means Committee in an ethics scandal, is trying to make inroads with Latino constituents like the many Dominican-Americans who have moved to the area since he entered the House in 1971.

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State Senator Adriano Espaillat in East Harlem on Wednesday.CreditOzier Muhammad/The New York Times

Mr. Espaillat, who was born in the Dominican Republic, is working to energize his base to counteract what polls show is Mr. Rangel’s advantage with older voters, who often come out to vote in disproportionately high numbers in primaries like the one on June 24.

The pastor of a large Harlem church, the Rev. Michael A. Walrond Jr., and a Bronx activist, Yolanda Garcia, are also in the race.

Amid a half-dozen East Harlem small business owners, Mr. Espaillat outlined how he wanted to change the Empowerment Zone program: A tax incentive that now awards businesses with $3,000 per employee would be doubled to $6,000 per employee for small businesses. Large companies would get $2,000 per worker, if they pay employees a so-called living wage and benefits. (Large companies that do not would receive no tax incentives, under his plan.)

Mr. Espaillat said big-box retailers had displaced small businesses and paid such low wages that workers earned as little as $15,000 a year.

Asked how much he paid his employees, Mr. Matar paused, then said $8.25 an hour — the minimum wage in New Jersey and a quarter more than the minimum wage in New York.

Hearing this, Mr. Espaillat interjected: “So if I give Pedro a $6,000 tax credit, you know, he may hire somebody at $10 an hour. He can hire a veteran.” At his job fair, Mr. Rangel was mobbed by résumé-carrying constituents who asked to have their photos taken with him.

“I’ve been to three of his job fairs with his name attached to them,” said Dorothy Hendricks, 49, who lives in the Bronx. “I got three interviews.”

Ms. Hendricks said her job hunt had been difficult. “When you look at the applications today, they say you must be bilingual,” she said.

Mr. Rangel is not bilingual, but he was ready when Fior Frias, 51, a home health aide, posed for a picture with him.

“Everybody from the Dominican Republic loves you,” she said.

“Gracias,” Mr. Rangel said, kissing her hand.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: In Race for Rangel’s Seat, Leading Rivals Promise Job Growth in Struggling Areas. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe